What is the meaning behind the word EMPOWERMENT?

Editor’s Note: Informer Media Group welcomes its latest columnist, John Dunia. He will explore and share his thoughts on overcoming adversities with his unique approach in assisting the reader towards better self-awareness.

By John Dunia

Empowerment

I have always been fascinated by words and their origins. In fact, a favorite memory of mine was spending time with my father while randomly looking up words in a dictionary and discovering their origins and evolution.

A word which seems to be making many appearances in today’s lingo is “Empowerment.” Being so enamored of that word I included it in the name of my company, Global Creative Empowerment Group. Since then, it continues to spring up the world over – including in the Las Vegas Informer where it has its own category.

I researched the origin of this word and believe it or not, one of its first prominent uses was during the mid-19th century and it began as a political term. Today the word is associated more with a process of becoming stronger and more confident. We can “EMPOWER” others or ourselves but let’s first break it down and deconstruct it a bit more.

The prefix “em” means to put into or onto and the suffix “ment” designates an act of. Empowerment, in its raw form would mean putting an act of power on or into something or someone. The word “power” itself has a wide range of meanings but the generally accepted terms of strength and confidence are well suited for its meaning in today’s understanding.

This diverse yet incredibly thriving town has developed many reputations. To much of the world, Las Vegas is known as Sin City but the city offers incredible artists, successful entrepreneurs and, of course, the greatest understanding of hospitality on the entire planet. Let’s add to that status “Empowerment.” With its diverse population and drive to be unique, let us empower one another to reach even higher goals and make this community the envy of the world.

Share your stories of how you were empowered or inspired others to do more than they believed they could. Las Vegas is a thriving town and by adding empowerment to the city’s list of qualities, we can collectively and ultimately have the power to change the world’s perception. Feel free to email them to dhall@informermg.com and I will select contributions to post.

Since 2007, John Dunia has written for many local Las Vegas publications. In 2013, he began blogging and sharing his thoughts on overcoming adversities with his unique approach in assisting the reader towards better self-awareness. In 2015 he completed his first self-help-style book, “Shame On Me – Healing a Life of Shame-Based Thinking” which was a semi-autobiographical account of how he overcame and heal difficulties from his past. It inspired him to branch out in other directions. He now consults with people one-on-one to help them find their own breakthroughs. He also is a guest speaker on the topic of shame and effective ways to heal. To find out more, visit www.gcegroup.net.

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4 Responses to What is the meaning behind the word EMPOWERMENT?

Nice passion to explore the background of several English words. Empower is to give authority to get stronger. This indirectly means that till empowerment, one is not been as strong to perform.
Handing over a gun to someone can be called empowerment, by in physical terms.Mentally, empowerment is more abstract in terms of skills, knowledge, intelligence and compassion.
Creative empowerment is more appropriate. Good post. Regards

Empowerment is to bring out the best in an individual. We all possess certain talents which at times we are unaware of so Empower would mean to mentor someone to showcase his full potential. This word is now a days more connected with women. Woman Empowerment is what we read in books, see in movies. Examples would be the book ” Women who work”, the movie ” Wonder woman” etc.

Thank you Raynah, for your comments. I never really considered the idea that it was more about women but I think they certainly deserve it. There are things that may favor one gender over another but that is still no reason to exclude or devalue anyone.
I would be interested in hearing about any empowerment stories you may have…. (oops, I gave you some insight on my next post!)